BritRail Pass

My wife and I travelled to Uk for 2 weeks. One in Manchester and the next near Dundee. We used the train system as I did not want to rent a car. We found the Britrail pass easy to get, easy to use. The folks at the train stations and on board the trains all recognized the pass and were all extremely helpful in directing us to the proper connections. We used the flex pass as we did not need it everyday. It was great value and a real timesaver as we did not have to stand in lines buying tickets. We would highly recommend to anyone traveling to Britain and planning to use trains get one.

The convenience of being able to use the pass to ride the trains when and where we wanted was the key benefit to us. Allowed us to be totally flexible in our travels

Trip 1: Heathrow to Paddington, then on to St. Austell. GWR trains are the best! Comfortable, speedy and friendly staff. Was surprised to find that the First Class Lounge at Paddington had the washroom cordoned off. Trip 2: GWR. St. Austell to Nottingham. Line work between Exeter & Taunton meant taking a coach for that segment, then leaving Taunton 10 mins late and behind a stopper. 25 mins late at Birmingham so missed my connection. On advice from helpful staff stayed on until Derby instead of alighting at Birmingham. Missed 1st Nott'm train by 3 mins; the next was scheduled for 20 mins later, but was delayed by another 30 min. Trip 3: Arriva - 2 coaches only leaving Nott'm for Manchester, I was on a jump seat by a door in the connecting compartment so as to control my suitcase. The nearest washroom was locked, out of commission. People were standing, not enough seating. Definitely not worth buying a 1st Class pass to travel under these conditions. Coming out of Sheffield someone suicided in front of the train. Horrible ordeal for the driver, and a 3 hr delay for us all. Returned to Sheffield, found next train to Manchester, staff helpfully advised me which platform at M'chester for LLandudno. Washroom turnstile counted my suitcase as a customer and used up my 20p, so i crawled under! Basically, UK Rail system is in chaos - hard on passengers and staff. Not worth the 1st class price to travel on jump seats in overcrowded train. GWR travel was definitely superior. Hope things improve before my next trip "home." My Dad worked GWR until it became BR - would not have been impressed!!

We are very sorry to hear that you did not fully enjoy your experience with the BritRail Pass. Depending on travel schedules and itinerary, the pass can offer some great value. With that said, we've taken note of your concerns with the BritRail Pass and we will provide the feedback to BritRail in hope it can help improve the product in the future. Thanks again for your review.

One person liked this comment.

Would use this service again and recommend it.

I love trains and although there were a few hitches to our travel plans because of weather related problems, everything was just great.

We travelled almost four thousand kilometres in three weeks going from St. Ives, Cornwall to Edinburg, Scotland and we had a fantastic journey.. Our experienced using Brit Rail was beyond our expectation. Budget friendly, stress free from buying and lining up for tickets and trains were very comfortable. Will definitely do it again.

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Coming from Australia I am envious of the frequency of your trains. They were nearly always on time and if they weren’t you kept travellers informed. Unfortunately I was really disappointed with the first class pass. We caught the following trains. London to York, York to Edinburgh Edinburgh to Glasgow, Glasgow to oxenholme and then finally to London. There was only one leg of our travels where the service was actually first class and we got a good meal and service. In our final leg from oxenholme to London the first class experience was a stale roll and no drinks. Apparently there was a box of water located on a shelf. That was the worst one. Mostly we were on virgin trains. The other problem was most staff were unfamiliar with the pass and it wasn’t until the end that someone explained to us what we were meant to do. The supposed guarantee if we lose the pass is not. Customer friendly as we need to have the guarantee to get a replacement Ian system such as this harks back to pre computers and I am still supriseed by it. Surely proof of I’d shoulld be enough to get a replacement pass if it is stolen or misplaced. I’d travel by train again but the first class pass was a rip off as the advertising bore no resemblance to the experience.

We are very sorry to hear that you did not fully enjoy your experience with the BritRail Pass. Depending on travel schedules and itinerary, the pass can offer some great value. With that said, we've taken note of your concerns with the BritRail Pass and we will provide the feedback to BritRail in hope it can help improve the product in the future. Thanks again for your review.

One person liked this comment.

We thoroughly enjoyed using our BritRail Pass for our UK vacation! It was super convenient to simply walk on to any train, any time. Loved the Pass!

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I find the rail passes very easy to use. They do reduce the cost of travel significantly if you are travelling long distances (or making single journeys). This time I had one free day of travel because of the Royal Wedding! Trains were horribly overcrowded and I often had to stand, but this is not the fault of the pass.

One person liked this comment.

Good service, easy to use